Adventure, Altercations and Admiration
by Sara Jaye
Summary: Two brothers. Fifty sentences. One strong bond.


**Challenge:** 1sentence  
**Theme set:** Epsilon  
**Warning[s]:** A few references to sex, but not in the context of the pair itself. ...see the notes below.  
**Notes:** Non-romantic. ;) And there's some serious and character development-y stuff that MIGHT seem out of place, but I did my best to keep it in-character and in the spirit of the show. Also, Tom's vocabulary was hard to emulate just so.

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**#01 - Motion**

It wasn't easy trying to stay awake for so many hours, the steady rocking of the ship across the waves being as soothing as it was; luckily, Henry was nearby to poke him should he accidentally doze off.

**#02 - Cool**

"Thanks," Henry whispered, taking the frosty glass of water from Tom; it seemed Egyptian summers were _not_ very forgiving of men who walked into them wearing long pants.

**#03 - Young**

It was healthy for boys Tom's age to constantly be thinking about it, and Tom was too rational to seek it out just to satisfy his momentary urges; still, Henry couldn't help but worry a little when he saw Tom head upstairs to his room with his _very_ cute study partner.

**#04 - Last**

Needless to say, it was the last time they would ever allow Anne and Suzie to dress them in drag for investigation purposes.

**#05 - Wrong**

"It just doesn't feel right, to watch the fireworks when she's not here to enjoy them," Tom whispers on the eve of their first Chinese New Year celebration without their mother.

**#06 - Gentle**

"The instructions said _gently_ hold him by the scruff of the neck, little brother," Henry laughed as Chu-Chu spit out the pill and continued to struggle in Tom's arms.

**#07 - One**

Henry truly was their father's number one son; strong, capable, smart and level-headed, Tom hoped that someday he could turn out to be even half as amazing as his older brother was.

**#08 - Thousand**

"This place must be over a thousand years old," Henry observed, to which Tom replied that it was precisely one-thousand, four-hundred and sixty-six years old; Henry just laughed and shook his head, he'd never stop being amazed at his brother's endless library of a brain.

**#09 - King**

"Someday I _will_ beat you at checkers, Tom, just you wait!"

**#10 - Learn**

"It figures after working with Stanley so long I'd pick up a thing or two from him," Henry said, satisfied that their janitor disguises had granted them clearance to the "forbidden wing" of the building.

**#11 - Blur**

It was almost scary how fast the years had gone by; he'd watched Tom grow from a little boy clinging to his sleeve to a kid learning to play the trombone to a teenager whose intellect exceeded his years, _how is it that you're eighteen now and ready to go off to college, where did the time go?_

**#12 - Wait**

"No, I wasn't waiting up for you, really...there was a good movie on," Henry claimed; unfortunately he wasn't fooling his brother and quickly confessed that yes, he _was_ curious as to how his date had gone.

**#13 - Change**

The way-too-happy, screaming homeless man continued to beg for coins and the brothers shared an uneasy look before walking away, pretending they'd never seen him.

**#14 - Command**

"Tom, you and Suzie wait here while I try to get some answers out of this guy," Henry instructed.

**#15 - Hold**

The night their father was dangerously wounded on the job was the first time Tom had ever seen Henry cry; tentatively, he wrapped his arms around his brother, _you held me like this when Mom died, please let me do the same for you now._

**#16 - Need**

He knew he didn't _need_ Henry's protection, but he knew he could count on it just the same and during the riskier investigations, that alone made him feel safer.

**#17 - Vision**

"And I thought my own night vision was subpar, you didn't even _see_ that chair in your direct line of vision," Tom teased, extending a hand to an embarrassed Henry; Henry just shook his head and gave his brother a cranky frown as he stood up.

**#18 - Attention**

"Tom, I know all this natural history is fascinating to you but try to keep your mind on the case, would you?"

**#19 - Soul**

The warm, gentle sounds of Tom practicing his trombone were just what Henry needed after the mother of all hard days; he smiled as he lay back on his bed and listened, letting the music soothe his frayed nerves.

**#20 - Picture**

Even long after they'd gotten home safely and his brother's wounds had been patched up, Tom still couldn't get the sight and the scent of Henry's blood out of his mind.

**#21 - Fool**

"Don't worry, Tom, you're not the only one who jumped to the wrong conclusion on this one."

**#22 - Mad**

It's rare for _any_ of the siblings to be genuinely angry with each other, which makes their first serious fight all the more traumatizing; words spoken in the heat of anger leave Tom shaken and unable to sleep until he's sought his brother's forgiveness.

**#23 - Child**

"He trusts you," Pop says as he observes the sleepy four-year-old pulling closer to his brother, still a child himself who is completely bewildered that _any_ living being could come to depend on him this strongly.

**#24 - Now**

"Henry," Tom whispered frantically as the masked man drew closer to the pair, Henry glanced over his shoulder and whispered back, "_run._"

**#25 - Shadow**

It was funny how a small dog like Chu-Chu could cast such a frightening shadow; while Tom was amused, Mimi was most decidedly not, refusing to loosen her grip on Henry's pajama top.

**#26 - Goodbye**

Even as the brothers watched their mother's casket being lowered into the ground, it still didn't seem real.

**#27 - Hide**

"I assure you, this very mild pertussis is no cause for concern," Tom says, but he looks like death warmed over as he coughs into the sleeve of his robe; a quick touch of his brother's hand to his forehead confirms a fever, thus ending his attempt at feigning good health.

**#28 - Fortune**

"Really, Flip, why do you have to say that every time someone shows us something valuable?" Henry scolded, while Tom simply wondered how long it would be until the watch was reported missing.

**#29 - Safe** (companion to 24)

Even when the danger had passed and it was safe to come out from under the table, Tom still refused to let go of Henry's hand.

**#30 - Ghost**

"I highly doubt that this residence, old and decrepit as it may be, is actually haunted," Tom said. "Although it certainly doesn't try very hard to convince us otherwise."

**#31 - Book**

"Couldn't handle that comic after all, could you," Henry sighed; Tom held the offending material by the tips of his fingers, looking pale and sick and thoroughly traumatized as he demanded to know why his brother would own a copy of something drawn by an artist who couldn't be bothered to use their _own_ art.

**#32 - Eye**

"To say this produced has past its expiration date would be a gross understatement," Tom said, and Henry readily agreed on the "gross" part as he saw that the potatoes had more eyes than the Martians in Scooter's favorite comics.

**#33 - Never** (companion to 22)

"I could never stay mad at you," Henry whispers, and Tom buries his face in his brother's shoulder with a choked sob of relief.

**#34 - Sing**

The trombone wasn't just a good challenge of an instrument, it also assured Tom that he wouldn't put a kink in the band's performances should his voice start to crack while he was singing.

**#35 - Sudden**

"Not to worry, it's quite normal for a settling domicile to produce a suspicious cacophony seemingly out of nowhere," Tom said, but his voice was shaking and he knew just as well as his siblings that they were being followed; Henry and Nancy each squeezed his hands and he gratefully squeezed back.

**#36 - Stop**

"With all due respect to my eldest brother," Tom said, his voice tight with worry and irritation, "quit being so _stubborn_ and allow me to contact a physician before your injuries get _worse!_"

**#37 - Time**

"It doesn't matter how long it's been, she was our mother," Henry said as he drew his brother into a comforting hug, "you're allowed to miss her, and you're allowed to cry."

**#38 - Wash**

"Although I'm aware this occurs regularly among boys of my age, I still can't help but feel somewhat mortified," Tom confessed, and Henry gave him a comforting smile as they carried the sticky bedsheets down to the laundry room.

**#39 - Torn**

"What happened to you?" Henry asked as Tom and Alan stumbled over, their clothes practically rags and their hair full of grass and twigs; Tom just muttered something about squirrels not being anywhere near as innocent as they looked.

**#40 - History**

"It's quite fascinating to imagine the many events that may have transpired on this land before our house was even built, isn't it?"

**#41 - Power**

"I believe by working together, we can combine our single but otherwise useless culinary abilities into one and prepare a meal that's actually edible," Tom said; Anne and Henry were skeptical but nonetheless decided to give his theory a try.

**#42 - Bother**

"No, it's okay, I can finish my homework later. What did you want to talk about, little bro?"

**#43 - God**

"I'm sure God will forgive us," Henry said, "even if we are sneaking around in a church, it's for a good cause."

**#44 - Wall**

"Hey, look, the wall opens! Come on, Tom, I'll bet the crook's hiding in here with the paintings!"

**#45 - Naked**

"So _that's_ where my secret magazine collection went," Henry chuckled, "hey, don't be embarrassed, all guys get curious about this stuff...quit looking at me like that, I'm not mad at you!"

**#46 - Drive**

"Maybe we'd better seek shelter for the evening, you're clearly exhausted and I'm obviously unable to take over for you behind the wheel."

**#47 - Harm**

Pop wouldn't approve of him hurting a kid five years younger than him, but seeing the bully mocking Tom and his siblings' lack of a mother made Henry want to kick that boy into the next state; he settled for an intimidating glare and angry words to send the bully running, _and don't you ever hurt my brother again!_

**#48 - Precious**

"Okay, little bro, I think that's enough Lord of the Rings for one night...come on, put the book down, you can hardly keep your eyes open as it is."

**#49 - Hunger**

"See, this is what happens when you forget to eat while studying, you get hungry enough to eat _my_ cooking," Henry laughed as he watched Tom dig into his failed attempt at curry.

**#50 - Believe**

At the end of the day, it wasn't Tom's admiration that fed his ego; rather, it was his brother's unwavering faith in him that warmed Henry's heart.

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Notes:

#13: I-I _had_ to, I saw the word and was immediately reminded of Chester A. Bum. I figured wacky and scary homeless folks were commonplace enough so that I could make the allusion without the jarring anacrhonism.

#5, 15, 26, 37: My headcanon for the missing Mrs. Chan is that she died of cancer when Scooter was four. During this time Tom leaned on Henry a lot, thus forming a strong brotherly bond between them.

#33: Nocturnal emissions may not be just like girls' periods, but I imagine it can be just as embarassing and oogy to find the mess on the sheets the next morning just the same.

#39: It's true. How else do you explain them running out in front of cars as _exactly_ the "right" moment?

#48: Couldn't resist a Gollum reference. LOTR actually strikes me more as something Alan would read, but I can see him convincing Tom to give it a try.

#41, 49: In my head canon, Henry is Lethal Chef. So is Anne. Tom is a good cook, but is prone to experimenting with things he shouldn't. (Curried olives, anyone?)


End file.
